Turkey!! relates itself close to Christmas as its the Christmas classic dinner or meal in many places, similarly it has been a tradition in our home for many years to cook turkey for Christmas or New year. This South Indian style turkey curry has been the main course of our lunch on these special days. When I was a kid Grandma makes idlis and chicken curry for breakfast along with some of my favorite vivikas a kind of sweet idli, and for lunch she makes this turkey curry along with coconut rice, the aroma from the kitchen assures us that it is a special day. Being a kid I was always hesitant to taste turkey curry and so grandma would make some chicken fry for me separately. But on one Christmas the market was out of chicken and so there wasn't any chicken special for me, so I was forced to have this curry with rice and I started loving it from then, I felt that I had missed something for years also I felt so bad that I had burdened my poor granny too, because making a special menu on a special day isn't that easy among the busy festive mood and schedule, but she still made time for me and she would never complain or grumble about my fussiness, isn't she the sweetest? Am sure many of you must have been petted and pampered some way by your mom or dad or granny. Now am going to go way away from the recipe, into the essence of Christmas.

If an earthly mom, dad or grandma would have loved you so much, how much more would our heavenly father, Jesus would love us? He gave his life for us, does anyone else on earth give his or her life for our sake? This world is such, that no one cares or even has time to care about anybody, everyone are so selfish with his or her life. I heard an incident recently were a father refused to lend his kidney to his dying son who had a kidney failure!! Shame on him!!! These days there's no respect or love for people. Love has diminished and people are behaving more like animals hurting and wounding others, taking pleasure and pride in others difficulties and weakness. Listening to all the news about injustice happening every day, is so awful. People hurting people, spouse hurting and killing better half, kids killing and hurting parents, murder and theft everywhere there is no humanity in this world. Also spouse, kids and family itself have become demanding, where one wants his or her desires to be fulfilled to give back love, it has become conditional, like do this for me only then I will love you back. But God is the only one who unconditionally loves you and me. He gave his life for us on the Cross without expecting anything from us. Every Christmas has to be celebrated with this in our minds. Its not just another birthday of Christ!! Think of why he was born on earth, he came to bring Salvation to people. Salvation came through Him to the world!! Now, what does salvation mean? It is deliverance from sin, its power and its consequences. So how did he bring about salvation? He came to this world for our sake, suffered and died on the cross. His death was not an easy one, He was beaten, and torn into pieces and crucified on a cross, he shed all his blood and gained forgiveness for our sins. Doing so he released us from the power of sin and took away all our punishment that were meant to be ours. On the third day God raised him from the dead and He is now in heaven with arms wide open, to shower you all blessings and give all you ask for. He is still alive, He neither sleeps nor dozes, He stays all day and night awake, knows what you do and cares for you every single second, He knows what you need even before you ask him for. Does your earthly parent or spouse or kid care for you every minute or do they know what you need even before you ask? Isn't this the Lord's unconditional love. Am sure his love is the most unconditional one on world and in heaven!! And I praise him for loving me so much and giving himself just for the sake that I should live!! This is the essence of Christmas and this is what should be remembered and celebrated. Now he is still there to take care of you like a mother would take care of. He says "Like a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you" Can you picturise how a mother would comfort a crying child? Now relate this with the above verse.. Can you just imagine that God will comfort us the same way? How unconditional is His love!!! He forgives you the next moment you ask him sorry for the wrong you have done, does anybody on earth forgive you when you apologize? How easy is He on us? Above all the Bible says he says " Whoever touches (hurts) you touches the apple (pupil) of the Lord's eye" Wow what a great loving God we have!! When you become His Child no one can touch you, can anyone touch God's eye and if it is purely impossible, how can he touch (hurt) you then? So how can you become His child? Just accept Him and invite Him into your heart, ask him sorry and become his kid. He is ready to forgive you and is eagerly waiting to accept you as His child. After you become His child you are no longer a sinner, people may condemn you, talk bad about you, look down on you and may relate you with your past sins, they may never forget your wrongs, but the Lord throws away your sins being His back and never looks down on you as a sinner.You may not be perfect but God does not see your imperfections like mere people do. Though people are still imperfect in their own way they point fingers at others mistakes to condemn them, but our loving God never does it. The moment you believe him, you become His child, you become righteous just like him and you are not imperfect any longer. Thinking of all these makes me so proud to be His child. Am so grateful for all this and I cherished this Christmas having all these in mind. I want one and all to be proud of this and celebrate Christmas and each day with a grateful heart. Lets now go back to the recipe. From the day I tasted this turkey curry, I would wait for the lunch time to arrive soon, just to taste this curry. Though granny is not here with us, I do remember her every time I taste this curry. Mom follows the same preparation method that my dear granny has left for us and today am going to share this Christmas / New year special curry recipe with you. This curry was prepared by my Mom for Christmas and she was so generous to share this recipe with us. Unlike chicken, turkey has tougher meat and hence needs to be cooked longer but otherwise making the curry is easy. After cooking the meat pieces becomes so tender and succulent. We get the turkey along with its skin and fat so the curry tastes so rich and good, but you can use skinned turkey too if you are very much concerned about the fat content. But I would like to assure you that you will love the turkey pieces with its skin and fat. Now lets see how to make this delicious and rich Christmas Classic Turkey Curry!!!

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4 to 5 peopleTotal Preparation Time - 1 hour

Turkey / Vaan Kozhi - 1 kg (curry cut medium sized pieces with skin)

Coconut - 1/2 of a coconut (grated or chopped into small pieces)

Big onion - 1

Ginger - 1 inch small piece

Garlic - 2 pods

Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1 spoon

Fennel seeds / Sombu - 1 spoon

Red chilli powder - 3 spoons

Coriander powder - 3 spoons

Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon

Mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon

Curry leaves - Few

Bay leaf - 1

Star anise - 1

Cinnamon stick - 1 small stick

Salt - As per taste

Oil - 5 to 6 spoons

PREPARATION METHOD

Wash the turkey pieces well in running water and set aside.

Take a pressure cooker and add the washed turkey pieces into it and pour water until gets immersed well. then add some salt and turmeric powder and close the cooker. Pressure cook for 20 minutes on medium flame. Pressure cook for 30 minutes if the turkey is an aged one.

Meanwhile make the coconut masala. For masala add the following ingredients to a blender and grind well into a fine paste.

(Coconut Masala)1. Coconut - 1/2 of a coconut (grated or chopped into small pieces)

2. Ginger - 1 inch small piece

3. Garlic - 2 pods

4. Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1 spoon

5. Fennel seeds / Sombu - 1 spoon

6. Star Anise - 1

Switch off the flame and wait until the pressure drops (pressure gets released on its own). Open the lid and check whether the pieces are almost cooked. If not cook for another 5 or 10 minutes accordingly.

Then open the cooker and add the ground paste, little salt for the gravy, red chilli powder, coriander powder, and stir well.

Pour water to and adjust the gravy consistency.

Stir well and check for salt. Add if necessary, if salt is in excess, add some more coconut paste or coconut milk.

Then take a pan and add oil into it. After it heats up, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add bay leaf, curry leaves, chopped onions and saute for a minute. Then add this mixture into the curry.

Close the pressure cooker with the lid and place on flame. Switch the flame to high mode and wait until the steam oozes out. Then place the regulator or whistle and switch to low flame.

Pressure cook for 10 minutes and switch off the flame.Wait until pressure drops then remove from flame and serve!!

TIP 1: The time to cook the meat may vary according to the age of the turkey so always pressure cook it initially for 20 minutes remove from flame and check if the curry has become tender, if not pressure cook for some more time.

TIP 2: Add little oil if you are going to use turkey pieces with skin. It releases a lot of fat, as you can see in my pics.

TIP 3: If you do not want to add coconut, you can add coconut milk and make the curry. But adding the coconut makes the curry taste rich and yum.

Very nice turkey curry dear. Merry Christmas to u and family. I was very busy with many activities and couldn't blog much. I will start writing more from January, I guess. Very nice anecdote too. Touching!

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